q

a speech sound represented by this letter, in English usually a voiceless velar stop, as in unique and quick

q

symbol

1.

quintal

Q

symbol

1.

(chess) queen

2.

question

3.

(physics) heat

abbreviation

4.

(text messaging) queue

Jones

/dʒəʊnz/

noun

1.

Daniel. 1881–1967, British phonetician

2.

Daniel. 1912–93, Welsh composer. He wrote nine symphonies and much chamber music

3.

David. 1895–1974, British artist and writer: his literary works, which combine poetry and prose, include In Parenthesis (1937), an account of World War I, and The Anathemata (1952)

4.

Digby (Marritt). Baron. born 1956, British businessman and politician; director-general of the Confederation of British Industry (2000–06); Minister of State for Trade and Investment (2007–08)

5.

Inigo (ˈɪnɪɡəʊ). 1573–1652, English architect and theatrical designer, who introduced Palladianism to England. His buildings include the Banqueting Hall of Whitehall. He also designed the settings for court masques, being the first to use the proscenium arch and movable scenery in England

6.

John Paul, original name John Paul. 1747–92, US naval commander, born in Scotland: noted for his part in the War of American Independence

Q

16th letter of the classical Roman alphabet, from the Phoenician equivalent of Hebrew koph, qoph, which was used for the more guttural of the two "k" sounds in Semitic.

The letter existed in Greek, but was little used and not alphabetized; the stereotypical connection with -u- began in Latin. Anglo-Saxon scribes adopted the habit at first, but later used spellings with cw- or cu-. The qu- pattern returned to English with the Norman Conquest and had displaced cw- by c.1300. In some spelling variants of late Middle English, quh- also took work from wh-, especially in Scottish and northern dialects, e.g. Gavin Douglas, Provost of St. Giles, in his vernacular "Aeneid" of 1513:

Lyk as the rois in June with hir sueit smell The marygulde or dasy doith excell. Quhy suld I than, with dull forhede and vane, With ruide engine and barrand emptive brane, With bad harsk speche and lewit barbour tong, Presume to write quhar thi sueit bell is rong, Or contirfait sa precious wourdis deir?

Scholars use -q- alone to transliterate Semitic koph (e.g. Quran, Qatar, Iraq ). In Christian theology, Q has been used since 1901 to signify the hypothetical source of passages shared by Matthew and Luke, but not in Mark; in this sense probably it is an abbreviation of German Quelle "source."

Jones

surname, literally "John's (child);" see John. Phrase keep up with the Joneses (1913, American English) is from the title of a comic strip by Arthur R. Momand. The slang sense "intense desire, addiction" (1968) probably arose from earlier use of Jones as a synonym for "heroin," presumably from the proper name, but the connection, if any, is obscure. Related: Jonesing.